Waalwijk,a visit to Hulst, Grandpa is now great grandpa!

Nils had a birthday party of one of his friends friday afternoon ( a girl..) and he was the only boy there. This girl lives up the road and is very fond of Nils.. Wende was a bit disappointed that she was not invited but she and I spend the afternoon playng games (although losing was not an option for Wende..) Ingmar slept a hole in the day as we say.. Saturday dad had to go to the barber to have his hair done.. (what is left of it that is.. ) In the afternoon we went to Waalwijk to buy new shoes for Wende and dad needed a new pair as well. I noticed that one shop had only left shoes in the shop displayed and in the other shop, across the street, they sold the same shoes but had the right hand side displayed. Now if I was a clever thief.. (but then again, I'm not)..

We bought Wende a nice pair of boots for her to grow out of in a couple of months. Mom had to go to the HEMA to order a new curtain for in the hallway but that took ages, there was this customer who had a million questions and wanted to have her whole house done.. In the mean time dad went outside with Nils Wende and Ingmar because there was a air cushion for kids to jump on. And next to it there was a stand were kids were given free candy floss!! wende loved it and so did Ingmar but Nils thought it was hair and did not even want to taste it.. And dad ended up eating most of it. Sunday we went to see my dad in Hulst. He also needed a new light in the kitchen which we picked up at the DIY when we did some shopping for dinner. It was good to see my dad again although he is a regular viewer of our webcam. The kids ate their supper and even had a second plate! It is still unreal to think that mom isn't with us anymore, coming friday will be her birthday and we will all visit her on saturday. Last but not least we heared that my brother's daughter Nikki gave birth to a son and that makes my dad a great granddad. He is as proud as a peacock. Congratulations Nikki and the rest of the family!

What else is new?

Well, not much, we had quite a routine weekend. Groceries, get rid of stuff at the recycling point, pumping water out of te bacement with a new toy (since the experimental previous pump burned as dad overloaded it ofcourse.. ) The new one is safeguarded in ever way so more or less idiot proof. Saturday we went to Duncan's birthday party in Honselersdijk where we saw a lot of friends from the past with their kids and time has certainly went on.. Afterwards we went to grandpa and grandma in De Lier. We told Nils and Wende that we would go to China, little China. So after a phonecall and a short trip we arrived at "China Graden" in De Lier. Wende and Nils loved the drawings and the paitings but the food was a little less for them. They missed the butter and a little sugar as we do at home for them.. Ingmar suprised everyone by loudly breaking wind in the middle of the restaurant. Sunday morning dad took Nils and Wende to the swimming pool where it was crowded with parents and their kids. I have never seen the pool so busy. A couple of Nils's friends were there as well and we had great fun on the big slide. Afterwards we had lunch at home and Nils made a collection of shells he found in the garden. We saved some shells from a holiday in France years ago. He wanted to show what he made to grandpa through the webcam but dad had a better idea, we took a couple of pictures and dad promised to put them on the web for grandpa to look at. Mom and Wende were working in the garden, Wende "cleaned" the windows and Ingmar played with the water. Another weekend passes by, another busy week is eminent.

Sicko

Nils was feeling a bit ill this weekend so we spent a lot of the weekend at home. A well, not entirely true, dad took mom to the movies on friday night. Loft, nice movie with a unpreditable plot and to dad's liking, without an open end.. I hate that.. Wende found her Efteling dance outfit and regurarely the music would be turned up so she could dance on it. Ingmar regurarelt takes a book from the shelfs and sits down next to you pointing out all the things he knows the words of. Auto is still favorite followed by "bal" and "bouwer" (from Bob the builder). Let's hope Nils will be better soon as this week the decision will be made if he is allowed to do his swimming exam next saturday..

birthdays, family and friends

The christmas days were spent at the families, first christmas day at tDe Lier and the second one in Hulst. In order to prevent too much trouble we went straight from De lier to Hulst at the end of christmas day 1. The third christmas day we went back to De Lier again to celebrate Lisette's mothers birthday. The next day was my birthday and we planned to escape to France to visit our friends the Smaals. Still with me? I was surprised with presents by Lisette and the kids as I woke up. There was not much time to celebrate as we were to drive to rance to see arthur, Lisa, Jack and Emma in a nice place near Montargis. The north of France gave us a bit of snow but after the traffic jams around Paris, the road was clear and we arrived around five o'clock in the afternoon. We had a great time with the Smaals and went skating in Montargis the following day. They even remembered my birthday and surprised me with a cake which gave me a hard to time to blow out the candles... Thanks arthur.. As a small thank you we had the equipment with us to fry real dutch fresh oliebollen or in French:"Boule d'huile". In addition we also had Appelflappen.. When we went back, we stopped by my dad in Hulst to "celebrate" the new year. The first new year without our mum. It still is hard to realize we'll never see or be able to speak to her again.. Nils and Wende were allowed to see the fireworks at midnight and together with Maartje and Guusje they enjoyed the fireworks for the first time and they loved it!

snow snow snow!

It started to snow here and then a little pause after which it started again and again.. So saturday we went to the place where we normally go for swimming because there is a spot where you can slide down on a sled but the first run of Ingmar went a bit wrong and caused Ingmar to tumble out of the sled and have a tooth through his lip.. So dad went home with Ingmar and mom stayed for a while with Wendeand Nils.
Sunday morning was spent (as usual) in the swimming pool although it was very quite after so much snow on the road. In the afternoon dad took Nils, Wende and Lindsey (nils's friend from down the road) to a place where it was even better to slide with the sleds. Wende loved it when she tumbled out of the sled but Nils was cross when we laughed at him... "Its NOT funny!!" he shouted everytime. But we couldn't help laughing as he wiped the snow of his face..

A tribute

Yesterday we went to my mother's grave because that would have been the day that my mom and dad were married for 50 years. We put flowers there and a little christmas tree. Dad brought mom's favorite bird dish which the birds used in Hulst to have a bath. My brother was there as well with his wife and son Machiel, my sister Maaike with family and us with Wende and Ingmar. Nils had a birthday party of a friend which he was looking forward to for a long time..
After we visited mom we all went to Den Bosch where had diner in a nice restaurant called Christoffel, very good food but almost always fully booked. After dinner dad had to perform at de toonzaal with his workshop group. For ten weeks we learned to play a number of songs of a popular big band called the new cool collective. Nils, Wende, Maartje and Gussje were dancing on the music and Nils even shot a couple of videos.

Sinterklaas and poor Guusje

Well, we survived the Saint 2010 and the kids were treated to so much new toys, we hardly have the space to store them all... Sinterklaas came to Andel on Saturday and Nils thought he saw a white glove banging on the window before disappearing into the unknown.. Guusje unfortunately was feeling very sick and the family from Woerden had to retreat earlier then expected.. Sunday was spent at the Struyk family and the Sint appeared there in person! According to Nils it was only a helping Sint, not the real one.. Ah well, maybe next time.